Reverb Kitchen & Bar, the Polk Street restaurant from Eric Fenster and Ari Derfel, the team behind Gatherin Berkeley, quietly shut its doors for the last time on Saturday (April 9).

While Fenster and Derfel’s seven-year-old Berkeley restaurant has earned a loyal and solid following over the years, their San Francisco sibling struggled to take off. The Russian Hill restaurant, which originally opened as Verbena temporarily shuttered just 15 months into operation, reopening with the new concept and name.

“We found it a trickier place to operate than in Berkeley,” says Fenster of the San Francisco restaurant, citing a number of reasons for the closure, including higher operating expenses and staffing difficulties.

Fenster seems matter-of-fact about the closure and says that he’s really proud of what his team pulled off and that he had a lot of fun with Reverb. Now, Fenster will refocus his energy on Gather, where opening sous chef Charis Wahlrecently returned to take over as executive chef.

As far as what will take Reverb’s place, Fenster said that he and his team are in the early stages of transferring the liquor license to new owners, but is keeping mum on the details for now.